When last we saw our surgeons of Grey+Sloan Memorial Hospital, the latest MerDer fight ended with him storming off to Washington, D.C. to work for the President. Jackson overheard some bad news about his and April’s unborn child. And Amelia had just told Arizona that she could remove Dr. Herman’s “inoperable” brain tumor. “Where Do We Go From Here?” picked up almost immediately from where we left off as Meredith’s solemn voice over on how the body handles shock was juxtaposed with her ripping the Post-It vows off the wall of MerDer’s bedroom and throwing them into the trash. Yikes.

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I Gave Up Everything for You! 

Full disclosure: Meredith Grey has never been my favorite character on Grey’s Anatomy. To be honest, she’s never even been in the Top Five. I find her to be insufferable a great deal of the time. Case in point: can she ever say a word to Owen without it being laced with snark? I mean, seriously. But I digress. I actually did feel for the woman tonight as her whole world was crumbling around her. Still reeling from Cristina’s move to Zurich (and how refreshing was it to learn that they still talk semi-regularly?), Meredith is now trying to raise her two kids while also holding down a career as an attending general surgeon in a major metropolitan hospital after McDreamy McPouty stormed off to D.C. following his hissy fit. She spends the episode telling shocked friends and colleagues that Derek left, searching for a nanny and finding a pancreatic tumor that caused a mom to drive herself and her two kids off a bridge. 

That’s My Tumor!

Meanwhile, speaking of tumors, Arizona and Amelia are trying to figure out how to tell Dr. Herman that Girl Shepherd may be able to save her life. Turns out their problem was solved rather quickly as an enraged Dr. Herman had already stumbled across the scans of her tumor displayed in the lab. Oops.

Initially Herman balked at accepting Amelia’s offer to help, finally confiding in Arizona that she can not allow herself to have hope anymore. It’s too hard when things don’t work out. But eventually Nicole came around and agreed to have the surgery, but with a catch. She wants to wait as long as possible (before the tumor reaches the point of no return) to live her life and continue teaching her surgical methods. I admit that it took me a while to warm to this woman but I kind of love her now. Kudos to Geena Davis for creating a tremendously complex character. I really, really hope she lives. Which probably means she won’t, but fingers crossed, right? Who’s with me?

Why Would God Let That Happen? Why?

In what is clearly the beginning of The Saddest Storyline Ever (and on this show that’s saying a lot), Jackson immediately told April that their baby boy has been diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta, a disease which almost certainly means that Baby Avery will live a very short, very challenging life, should he survive his birth at all. 

It was heartbreaking to see both April and Jackson pretty much shut down from the shock of it all. April retreated into her work while Jackson searched in vain to find some way to make things better. It seems certain that woman of faith April and man of science Jackson will grapple with what is to come in very different ways, but I truly hope the writers build on the foundation laid tonight as the couple began to lean on each other in the midst of their devastation. Will their marriage be able to survive? I hope so. Speaking of which… 


We Will Figure This Out 

By episode’s end, we came full circle back to Meredith and Derek. We were led to believe that Meredith was calling Cristina but that was a bait and switch. Instead, she caught up with Derek (apparently he had spent the entire day at the airport) and they agreed that they didn’t want things to end like this and that somehow they would figure things out together. Will they do it? Time will tell.

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Memorable Quotes 

“Is there something you want to tell me? Or a Grand Jury?” — Stephanie to Jo

“I’m too pretty for prison.” — Arizona

“You’re a kid!” — Bailey

“I’m an attending pediatric surgeon.” — Alex

“She (Cristina) was right. And I don’t want her to be right.” — Meredith to Owen

“I left you alone for a few minutes. Am I gonna find my wallet in your pocket?” — Dr. Herman to Arizona

“I told Cristina to go too. It was the only thing to do. She had to go. If she’d stayed, it would have been worse. I know that now.” — Owen to Meredith

“I need a person who is in it with me.” — Meredith to Lynn The Nanny

“You’re a really good mom.” — Alex to Bailey

All new episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, air Thursdays on ABC.

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(image courtesy of ABC)

Janalen Samson

Contributing Writer, BuddyTV